"Truly, it is the indescribable sweetness of contemplation which you give to those who love you. In this you have shown the tenderness of your charity, that when I had no being you made me; and when I strayed away from you, you brought me back again to serve you and commanded me to love you." The Imitation of Christ

Thursday, 3 July 2008

Prophetic Statements...

I teach both boys and girls. There is a definite difference in the way they approach any task or problem: not necessarily better, just different.

It's often a subtle difference. Sometimes not so subtle.

It can be tricky, in a classroom situation, to cope with the different needs of boys and girls, to allow them the freedom to express themselves and to explore their talents and interests. I am becoming more and more convinced that single-sex education is actually better: not necessarily single-sex schools, just the actual lessons.

We've had single-sex Confirmation classes for two years, last year by accident, this year by design (as last year was so successful.) I've also noticed that the boys are more keen to serve on the sanctuary when there aren't any girls in evidence. They also really don't like to dress in the same way as the girls if there is any hint of a choice...

So I was very interested to read the following quote on Fr. Ray's blog...

John, Cardinal Heenan apparently said this after attending the first demonstration of the Novus Ordo.

"At home it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday in the Sistine Chapel we would soon be left with a congregation mostly of women and children."

Oh my giddy aunt! How awful! D'you mean you are actually in favour of preserving gender stereotypes? Is all the dedicated work of the politically correct in the past decades to come to naught? Never mind the children, think how much the self esteem of the sociologists, social workers, government advisers and marxist college lecturers will suffer when their carefully nurtured social engineering theories begin to crumble in the light of empirical evidence. Have some compassion.

I am posting the full quote from Cardinal Heenan because the quote referred to has been taken out of context. A poster on Fr Ray's blog supplied this.

The quote from Cardinal Heenan can be found in the book 'A Bitter Trial, Evelyn Waugh and John Cardinal Heenan on the liturgical changes, Edited by Scott M.P. Reid' on p.70.

The quote comes from Cardinal Heenan's intervention at the Synod of Bishop's, Rome, in October, 1967. Bugnini comments on Heenan's intervention can be found in his own book (pp. 348-350).

Cardinal Heenan's intervention includes these words: "At home it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to Mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday in the Sistine Chapel (a demonstration of the Normative Mass) we would soon be left with a congregation of mostly women and children. Our people love the Mass but it is Low Mass without psalm-singing and other musical embellishments to which they are chiefly attached."

Year For Priests

About Me

I was about to describe myself as a young Catholic woman, but alas, that is no longer strictly true (two out of three isn't bad)!
I came back to the Church 22 years ago after what I consider to be a Damascus Road conversion, and
I'm fairly traditional in my outlook.
I am a single woman living and working in the world (as a Science teacher), and I took private vows in December 2002.